1. Psychology 40S C. McMurray
Learning
Psychology 40S C. McMurray

2. How Do We Learn?
Learning is a relatively permanent change in an organism’s behavior due to experience.

3. Experience is the key to Learning!
3 Types of Learning:
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
Social Learning/Observational Learning

4. Classical Conditioning
A learning procedure in which a person’s old response becomes attached to a new stimulus
An association between 2 stimuli
For example: When do we know when a scary part of a movie is about to take place?
Apply this to classical conditioning
Activities:
Draw a line and clap
Lemonaide “Pavlov” activitiy

5. Classical Conditioning Scary Movie Example
A learning procedure in which a person’s old response becomes attached to a new stimulus
Old response: Being scared when something jumps out at you in movie.
Attach response to music…now scared when music plays.
An association between 2 stimuli
Associating music with scary part of movie
Activities:
Draw a line and clap
Lemonaide “Pavlov” activitiy

6. Classical Conditioning and Pavlov’s Dog
Pavlov’s dog experiment
Pavlov originally studied how much dogs salivated during digestion.
Noticed that dogs started salivating at the sight of food.
Pavlov varied the stimuli before feeding…drooling to a bell
Activities:
Draw a line and clap
Lemonaide “Pavlov” activitiy
Ivan Pavlov

8. What did the sign on Pavlov's lab door say?
Joke Time:
What did the sign on Pavlov's lab door say?
Please knock. DON'T ring the bell.

10. Classical Conditioning
“Little Albert” Experiment (Famous example of classical conditioning in humans) He is considered the “Father of Behaviourism” Watch Little Albert experiment
Activities:
Draw a line and clap
Lemonaide “Pavlov” activitiy
John Watson

11. Little Albert

12. Classical conditioning with an altoid

15. Name the US,UR, CS,CR US
A large dog barks then bites you You see a large dog barking at you You feel pain You feel fear CS UR CR
US- unconditioned stimulus
UR – unconditioned response
CS- conditioned stimulus
CR – conditioned response

16. Name the US,UR, CS,CR CS
The child sees a nurse A child gets an injection from a nurse The child cries and runs from a nurse The child feels pain and cries US CR UR
US- unconditioned stimulus
UR – unconditioned response
CS- conditioned stimulus
CR – conditioned response

17. Fraser explains Classical Conditioning

18. Polly Dots Classical Conditioning Experiment1 2 3
Tell students to put 5 circles on their paper. When they hear the word “start” they begin in circle one making as many dots as they can. Say “stop” after 10 seconds, quickly move to circle 2 and repeat making dots when teacher says “start” continue…Each time you say start clap your hands. By the time they get to circle 5 clap your hands but do not say the word “start” Many will start because of the clap of your hands. 4 5

19. Extinction
After conditioning has occurred, what would happen if the unconditioned stimulus no longer followed the conditioned stimulus?
When the US (food) does not follow the CS (tone), CR (salivation) begins to decrease and eventually causes extinction.
Extinction:
The weakening of a conditioned response through removal of the unconditioned stimulus

20. Spontaneous Recovery
An extinguished response is not necessarily gone forever. With spontaneous recovery, organisms sometimes display responses that were extinguished earlier.
After a rest period, an extinguished CR (salivation) spontaneously recovers, but if the CS (tone) persists alone, the CR becomes extinct again.
Spontaneous Recovery:
The reappearance of a learned response after its apparent extinction

21. Stimulus Generalization
Tendency to respond to stimuli similar to the CS is called generalization.
(Pavlov’s dog salivates to any kind of bell)

22. Stimulus Discrimination
Responding differently to stimuli that are not similar to each other is called Discrimination.
(Pavlov’s dog salivates only to the bell he was trained with)

23. Review of Classical Conditioning Terms
Neutral Stimulus (NS) A stimulus that does not cause a response Unconditioned Stimulus (US) a stimulus that causes an automatic response Unconditioned Response (UR) an automatic response to a stimulus Conditioned Stimulus (CS) a learned stimulus Conditioned Response (CR) a learned response to a neutral stimulus

24. Operant Conditioning
A learning procedure in which a person’s behaviour increases or decreases due to consequences that follow that behaviour
Skinner box experiment
B.F. Skinner

25. Operant Chamber
Skinner developed the Operant chamber, or the Skinner box, to study operant conditioning.

26. Operant Chamber
The operant chamber, or Skinner box, comes with a bar or key that an animal manipulates to obtain a reinforcer like food or water. The bar or key is connected to devices that record the animal’s response.

27. Skinner Box

28. Reinforcement: Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
Types of Reinforcers
Reinforcement: Any event that strengthens the behavior it follows.
Preview Question 9: What are the basic types of reinforcers?

29. Reinforcement Schedules
Continuous Reinforcement: Reinforces the desired response each time it occurs.
Partial Reinforcement: Reinforces a response only part of the time. Though this results in slower acquisition in the beginning, it shows greater resistance to extinction later on.
Preview Question 10: How do different reinforcement schedules affect behavior?

30. (4 Types of Partial Reinforcement) Ratio Schedules
Fixed-ratio schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified number of responses. e.g., piecework pay.
Variable-ratio schedule: Reinforces a response after an unpredictable number of responses. This is hard to extinguish because of the unpredictability. (e.g., behaviors like gambling, fishing.)

31. Interval Schedules
Fixed-interval schedule: Reinforces a response only after a specified time has elapsed. (e.g., preparing for an exam only when the exam draws close.)
Variable-interval schedule: Reinforces a response at unpredictable time intervals, which produces slow, steady responses. (e.g., pop quiz.)

32. Positive Reinforcement

35. Big Bang Theory Operant Conditioning
operant conditioning big bang theory

36. Skinner Smart Pigeons Operant Conditioning Skinner
Skinner's Missile guided Pigeon Project

37. An aversive event that decreases the behavior it follows.
Punishment
An aversive event that decreases the behavior it follows.
Preview Question 11: How does punishment affect behavior?

39. Punishment (orange text 332-333)
Although there may be some justification for occasional punishment, it usually leads to negative effects. (Larzelaere & Baumrind, 2002)
Results in unwanted fears.
Gives no information to the person who is being punished.
Justifies pain to others.
Causes aggression towards the punisher.
Causes unwanted behaviors to reappear in its absence.
Causes one unwanted behavior to appear in place of another.

40. Video
Discovering Psychology “Learning” #8

41. Review… Classical and Operant Conditioning
Ted Talk: The Difference between Classical Conditioning and Operant Conditioning

42. Social Learning… Learning by Observation Form of learning by observing and imitating the behaviour of others
Bobo Doll Experiment
Activities:
Draw a line and clap
Lemonaide “Pavlov” activitiy
Albert Bandura
Acive Psych video clip: CD2 Learning #14: Bandura on Social Learning

43. Learning by Observation
Higher animals, especially humans, learn through observing and imitating others.
The monkey on the right imitates the monkey on the left in touching the pictures in a certain order to obtain a reward.
Preview Question 14: What is observational learning, and how is it enabled by mirror neurons?

44. Observational Learning
Cognitive Learning: Learning something simply by thinking about it. Modeling: Also known as Observational Learning. It is a type of imitation. The process of observing and imitating a specific behavior.

45. Mirror Neurons
Neuroscientists discovered mirror neurons in the brains of animals and humans that are active during observational learning.
Mirror Neurons: Frontal lobe neurons that fire when performing certain actions or when observing another doing so. They enable imitation and empathy.

46. Imitation Onset
Learning by observation begins early in life. This 14-month-old child imitates the adult on TV in pulling a toy apart.

47. Bandura's Experiments
Bandura's Bobo doll study (1961) indicated that individuals (children) learn through imitating others.

48. Waving Bear
see the waving bear